I'll Trade You
by justinxx
Summary: Hermione, expecting nothing to come of asking Luna to knit clothes for S.P.E.W., ends up learning a valuable and necessary lesson. Set in the first half of Order of the Phoenix.


Hermione Granger couldn't tell what was getting on her nerves more; her beanie drooping like the scowl of a Mandrake or Luna Lovegood reading from _The Quibbler_ out loud. Leaning against an oak tree surrounded by stacks of books and knitting materials, she allowed her bewitched needles to fall atop the pad of parchment in which her History of Magic essay ended abruptly. The afternoon sun glinted with the promise of an imminent autumn chill as it poked through the scattered leaves above, though the shade it cast offered little concealment of her irritation.

Deciphering Runespoor dreams to a flock of birds, Luna composed herself without a care in the world. Kneeling on a stone bench with her wand behind her left ear, she donned a frilly purple-feathered skirt, a pink jacket around her waist, and a short-sleeved cyan shirt. To Hermione's incredulity, Luna believed it was a wonderful day to go barefoot. The courtyard had been peaceful until she arrived, with huddles of students continually pointing and snickering as they hollered and shuffled by; Luna, naturally, paid no mind.

_Honestly, some people have _actual_ work to do!, s_he thought with a forceful sigh through her pouted lips.

It was all Luna's fault. With Hermione's concentration now broken, she was forced to face the thoughts that she had hoped to be distracted from. That gargoyle Umbridge was making everything worse at Hogwarts, which sidelined her prep for her Ordinary Wizarding Levels and made Harry more miserable than he already was. The fact that her clothes were disappearing was the only inspiration to indulge in her elf-centric extracurricular activities, but that didn't matter now as her worries began to race and rage at a hundred miles an hour. Catching herself welling up with agitation, she tuned back into her environment and took a deep breath.

_Relax_, she assured herself. _It's out of your control. You're just projecting_.

She had been telling herself this far too often as of late. It's not that she had anything wrong with Luna; perhaps it was the fact that she could unabashedly be herself that intimidated Hermione. It was actually quite brave, now that she took a moment to think about it. A knot began to tighten in the pit of her stomach as an idea came to fruition. _Would she be willing? _Their previous interactions had been painfully lukewarm at best, but it was worth a shot, wasn't it? Rolling up the sleeves of her white button-down shirt, Hermione cleared her throat with the prospect of adding a new member of S.P.E.W. to the ranks.

"Er, Luna?" she called, her voice sounding foreign to her own ears.

The eccentric Ravenclaw paused mid-sentence and folded the corner of the page she was on, popping off the bench as if in wait. Had she foreseen this conversation? Hermione didn't rule it out as a possibility. Gripping the magazine behind her back, Luna sauntered over, dirt clinging under her nails as she dug her feet into the emerald blades of grass.

"I thought I'd have to come over here myself," she announced, gazing down at Hermione. "I've felt your eyes on me for the past ten minutes."

Hermione suppressed a choke. "Sorry?"

Luna merely raised an eyebrow, her thin lips pursed and her toes wiggling expectantly.

"Right. Um, I just wanted to know if you wouldn't mind… helping me?" As if on cue, her cheeks began to flush, beads of sweat trickling down her forehead.

Her gray eyes twinkling, she straightened her posture as an indication that she was listening. That didn't stop Hermione from expecting the worst.

"I'm making hats and scarves for my organization. You tend to be rather… creative, and I thought you'd be a perfect fit. They're for the house-elves. If you don't have time, I perfectly understand…"

Luna smirked at this observation, her gaze falling upon the hideous brown button clipped to the left side of Hermione's chest. "What does S.P.E.W. stand for?"

Hearing anyone other than herself pronounce the name correctly made Hermione's heart flutter.

"Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare," she declared proudly, unable to resist a grin. "I wanted it to be longer but it got a bit wordy."

"Not many members, I presume?"

Like she needed to be reminded.

"Not as much as I'd like" Hermione admitted.

Untying the jacket around her waist and splaying it on the ground, Luna knelt before Hermione. She laid _The Quibbler_ in front of her, Hermione finding herself disoriented by this striking show of confirmation.

"My bet's on the Wrackspurts. They're always floating around, burrowing in people's ears."

"I'm sure" Hermione laughed as she swiped her books and papers aside. Tossing a pair of needles and a ball of red yarn, Luna caught them and began reading and knitting as if it were second nature. Envious and bewildered by her apparent skill, Hermione picked up where her enchanted needles left off.

Nearly ten minutes had passed and Luna remained glued to her magazine, softly humming a tune and bobbing her head as she incorporated multiple colors into her hat. Hermione frantically scoured her brain for anything they had in common, but hadn't the faintest idea of what to say that wouldn't upset or scare her away. _What could be so enthralling in a publication such as that?_ If only she could get a closer look…

She peered forward a bit, squinting her eyes to make out the contents across from her. _How does she read upside down so often? _It didn't look like she was going to get an answer.

"You're rather terrible at being inconspicuous, you know," Luna alleged with a conscious expression, raising her chin to stare at Hermione. "Even your eyebrows furrow the same way as everyone else's."

Hermione jumped. She felt her cheeks redden more than before and prayed that her bushy bangs came in handy for once and masked her embarrassment.

"Oh no, that's not what..." she stammered, hoping not to rustle any of the feathers on Luna's skirt. "I didn't realize I was staring. I was actually trying to read it."

Etched upon Luna's face was a puzzled expression. "Really?" she asked, her nose crinkled and her gaze cautious. She had never heard those words without leading in to a joke.

All Hermione could do was smile awkwardly, unable to gauge how she would react.

Trusting her judgment, Luna chirped with elation. "Go ahead! I'm finding this section on Curious Creatures fascinating!"

Hermione inched closer, releasing a chuckle as Luna showed her the magazine.

"You know how each head of a Runespoor serves a different function? Planning, dreaming, and criticizing? This Magizoologist in Mexico befriended one and submitted a cipher. The first person to decode their dream wins absolutely nothing. Isn't that neat?"

The decoder was exhaustive to the point where it needed to be folded separately between the pages. The symbols were so complicated, cramped, and hastily-scribbled that it hurt Hermione's eyes just looking at it, which was saying something for someone who mastered reading Ancient Runes in the dark.

"Made any progress?" she inquired as she began work on a green scarf, trying to sound more invested than she actually was.

"A little. So far, I've only surmised that the snake had a premonition of bad weather."

Terrified of letting the conversation die, Hermione asked if there was anything else worth noting.

Luna clicked her tongue before settling on a piece near the end of the over-sized booklet. "They print a lot about issues like yours in Magical Movements. That's clearly more intriguing to you."

Here were a collection of short essays documenting causes she had never heard of or even considered, which sprung off the page and seized her attention like any other book from the library. One under the heading of 'Things I Heard Pure-bloods Say in the Stall Across from Me' parodied the supposed woes of pure-blood traditionalists. A particular line had her in stitches: "Muggles disgust me. I'd rather carry out the rest of my days in Azkaban over cooking without self-peeling sprouts." 'Beast, Being, Spirit, or Neither' was penned by an anonymous writer who proposed new classifications for those that didn't prescribe to the guidelines set by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. 'Wizengamot Worries' raised awareness to the trend of harsher punishments for minor infractions under Cornelius Fudge.

"I didn't know _The Quibbler_ printed articles like these..." she trailed off, making mental notes of the authors and checking the back for a reference list.

"You never bothered to ask. It's not all Crumple-Horned Snorkack sightings, you know… though I wouldn't complain if it were," Luna muttered with a distant, dreamy inflection to her voice. "But that's what makes this special; they offer outlets to those who are told to be silent, and have a little fun while doing so. Plus you get a free pair of Spectrespecs."

Hermione felt her doubts about the publication subside as she handed it back. The pair felt their remaining qualms with each other ease as they knitted and chatted some more, with Luna naturally embellishing as if it were nothing. There was no denying that Hermione's zigzags could compete with Luna's cheerful elf faces.

"That's absolutely brilliant, Luna! And here I thought I was getting the hang of it."

"Your scarf isn't half bad. It'd make a great umbrella."

Hermione shrugged off the jape. "Were you taught?"

"Yeah. Before my mum died, she liked to make blankets and sweaters. She was fond of dyeing all kinds of fabric with potions to create different colors. I didn't appreciate doing it by hand back then, but I do now."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"No worries. I've given my elf it's own elf hat. Kind of perplexing, don't you think?"

Hermione wanted to smile encouragingly as Luna revealed her creation but she could only frown. "Quite."

"So when did you start the Society?" implored Luna as if the topic of her deceased mother never came up.

"Last year," she sighed. "I've informed students and staff, pinned posters on notice boards, wrote letters to the Ministry, and no one's done a thing. It's absolutely infuriating!"

"What do the elves think of it?"

"They're perfectly content! They refuse proper wages, clothing, housing… They think so low of themselves that it's up to me to fight for them! Luckily the clothes I've been leaving about have been disappearing," Hermione explained, motioning to the garments around them. "Did you know that we employ the largest amount of house-elves in the country and _Hogwarts: A History_ makes no mention of it? Was Bathilda so enamored by the ceiling of the Great Hall that she simply forgot to peruse the kitchens? Sounds convenient, if you ask me!"

"That is rather awful..." Luna acknowledged, biting her finger as if pondering something to say.

Hermione's nearly-finished scarf rolled off her lap as she reached for her mountain of books, ignoring such titles as _House-Elves and Self-Hatred_, _Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans_, and _Knitting the Muggle Way (I Suffered So You Don't Have To)_ in favor of a thousand-paged history book.

"It's not just here either. It's an epidemic rooted in institutions all over the world. You can borrow this when I'm done, if you'd like." Luna listened quietly while Hermione went off for a spell, nodding every once in a while at each tidbit of information. Wide-eyed and trembling with passion, Hermione gasped for air, expecting her tirade to be perceived in the way she'd been guilty of toward Luna's own ramblings. She was met with a giggle.

"What's so funny?" Hermione worried.

"Isn't it obvious? You're going about it all wrong."

"What do you propose?" Though her face turned pale, she knew that Luna wouldn't shut her down.

An otherwise direct response possessed an air of compassion and perceptiveness. "Patience. The problem can't be fixed overnight. Tricking elves into a life they don't want would be counter-intuitive, don't you think? You need to listen and support them on their terms. In time, if they want help, they'll ask."

Hermione was speechless. Questions without answers flooded her mind, her unyielding side begging to interject and say that she had a perfectly good handle on the matter. She hated to admit it, but there was truth in what was being said, which pained her to a degree she had never known.

"People tend to be so focused on what's in front of them that they forget to look around. Expecting to carry the burden alone won't get you anywhere. You just need to change the way you're doing things, even if it's uncomfortable or frightening. All things worth fighting for are."

Despite the blow of Luna's sincerity, Hermione found herself feeling much better. Whether she subconsciously blocked or overlooked a solution, she couldn't tell, but this new perspective lifted her anxieties like discovering the last piece of a puzzle. _Of course, it's so obvious now… _She hadn't treated the elves' plight with the utmost respect, and all she knew was that she was itching to address it head-on. Before she could properly ruminate and respond (not that she could have found the words after a proclamation such as that), the watch on Luna's wrist beeped.

"Oh! I have to get down to the lake. Some students and I are decorating our dream books for Divination," she exclaimed with a gleam in her eyes. "They probably won't wait up for me as usual."

"Er, that's alright. I don't know what to say… For all the work you did and what you said. Thanks. I truly mean it, Luna."

"Of course. I'll inform them too, if you'd like. Do new members get badges?"

Her bountiful box left in the common room, Hermione unpinned the one from her shirt with glee. "I'll trade you for _The Quibbler_? I'd like to look into those stories if that's okay." Not only that, but to understand Luna better.

Luna nodded in agreement, clipping the makeshift medium-sized button to the strand of dirty-blonde hair cuffed around the ear unoccupied by a wand. She brandished a toothless smile that Hermione couldn't help but offer back.

"I knew you'd give in sooner or later" Luna winked as she exchanged the magazine.

At this farewell, Luna skipped away, her Butterbeer cork necklace jangling in her wake. With the publication, more clothes, and her mind rife with new ways of championing for elf rights, Hermione fell against the tree in a much better mood than before. Recollecting her outlook on S.P.E.W. and recognizing that she was too quick to judge Luna, Hermione vowed to never make that mistake with her or anyone ever again.

_Face it, Hermione. You've still much to learn. _


End file.
